Washington County commissioners extended a probationary period for Nature's Needs compost facility, due to numerous complaints about foul odors.

About 40 people showed up Tuesday night at the Board of Commissioners' meeting in Hillsboro, most to say that nearly unbearable smells from Nature’s Needs’ 67-acre composting operation near North Plains makes life in the country miserable.

The commissioners, after listening both to residents’ complaints and a vow by the site’s operators to correct past errors, declined to go along with a staff recommendation to make acceptance of food scraps part of the business’s permanent franchise agreement with the county. Instead, commissioners voted 4-0 to extend a pilot program started earlier this year by 12 additional months.

Added Melvin Van Domelen, who lives several miles from the facility, “I’ve raised hogs and I’ve raised pigs, and the odor here is somewhere in between.”